Time to end the massive chaos of the 'golden week' holidays

The 'golden week' holidays are the only time many millions get a chance to travel - which means chaos and massive overcrowding

Wang Xiangwei

BIO

Wang Xiangwei took up the role of Editor-in-Chief in February 2012, responsible for the editorial direction and newsroom operations. He started his 20-year career at the China Daily, before moving to the UK, where he gained valuable experience at a number of news organisations, including the BBC Chinese Service. In 1993, he moved to Hong Kong and worked at the Eastern Express before joining the South China Morning Post in 1996 as our China Business Reporter. He was subsequently promoted to China Editor in 2000 and Deputy Editor in 2007, a position he held for four years prior to being promoted to his current position. Mr. Wang has a Masters degree in Journalism, and a Bachelors degree in English.

The combined photo shows the traffic jam in the Guangdong section of the highway linking Beijing and Zhuhai. Photo: Xinhua

Mainlanders like to compare being caught in throngs of people, all jostling to get through a crowded place, to making their favourite dish - boiling dumplings in hot water.

That comparison is a fitting metaphor for the nightmarish experience of tens of millions of holidaymakers who packed the nation's motorways, trains and airports during the week-long National Day holiday, which ended yesterday.

Online postings of pictures, along with state media reports, painted a picture of holiday mayhem on an unprecedented scale. The country's main roads were so packed, they appeared to be sprawling car parks.

Major tourism sites were so crowded that some visitors could see little more than the backs of people right in front of them.

There were plenty of horror stories of people being stranded, on top of mountains and other places, for hours without food or drink, only for them to then be ripped off by unscrupulous businesses. As holidaymakers recover from their vacations, many of which turned into nightmares, internet users and state media have started a new round of soul-searching over the holiday system. It is high time they did.

The central government introduced annual week-long "golden" holidays in 1999, after the Asian Financial Crisis, as a way to boost mainland consumer spending and fuel economic growth.

But mainlanders have long seen that the negatives of such holidays greatly outweigh the positives, as several hundred million trips are made during just seven or eight days.

These mass movements have not only sucked the fun and relaxation out of trips, but also resulted in unbearable pressure being placed on the country's infrastructure. Moreover, they have caused serious environmental damage to the country's heritage sites, which cannot handle the influx of so many people at the same time, even though the tourism industry rakes in billions of yuan in revenue during the holidays.

To be sure, given the size of the population and mainlanders' intensified yearning for holiday travel as they get richer, holiday rushes are sometimes inevitable, particularly during the Lunar New Year holiday, when people traditionally travel home for family reunions.

But there are several steps that the central government can easily take to make holiday travel more fun and enjoyable for mainlanders.

First, it is time for Beijing to review and fundamentally overhaul the holiday system. It should abolish the current arrangement of giving people entire weeks off for the National Day and Lunar New Year holidays.

But before that, it should increase the amount of paid leave that people receive. Ironically, China may be known for having a week-long National Day holiday, but that fact is that only the first three days are paid for, and the rest must be made up by working the weekend preceding the holiday.

And this year's National Day holiday was a day longer because the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday fell on September 30.

In fact, despite China's long-standing claim that workers are the masters in a socialist country, mainlanders enjoy one of the lowest levels of paid leave in world, ranging from five days for people with less than five years of experience to 10 days for people with five to 10 years of experience.

Second, the government should encourage mainlanders to take paid leave at times of their own choosing.

Currently, mainland employers, including multi-nationals, do not encourage their workers to take paid leave, except during the golden week holidays.

This means that mainlanders have little choice but to hit the road if they want to do any travelling during the year, even though they know they are likely to get caught up in the mayhem.

Third, the government should implement a better early warning system to help handle the holiday rush, such as using social media and other electronic media to give timely updates about road conditions and the size of crowds at major tourism sites.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Time to reform 'golden' holidays

The commentator's point of view appears to be more narrow than the proverbial frog's in the well.
Even in 'free' societies people can't go and take leave whenever they want. You might look into your newspaper's archive and find pictures and reports about start of the holiday season in Europe or the US and find very similar chaotic conditions on roads and in airports, for example. Companies in Europe close because employees, who happen to be parents, need to go on holidays when schools are closed. So one will find traffic jams on highways, airports filled with close-to-nervous-breakdown travellers and environmental problems not only once a year, but at least two or three times, because people there 'enjoy' more holidays, en masse, Europe wide.
With respect to the holiday regime, there certainly is a lot to improve in China, but equally a lot to consider.
I have lived long enough in Hong Kong and remember the time, when there was just one week holiday at Chinese New Year, for everybody, no excemptions made. That's not so long ago, you might consider to remember, so don't blow you horn too loud - the strict holiday rule slipped away when manufacturers relocated to China, otherwise it would still be in full force, I bet.
The above comment would gain in credibility if the author would consider to clear his glasses from politically generated fog.

chaz_hen Oct 8th 201212:18pm

And it should be illegal for employers to basically hold employees hostage by withholding salary payments until return from holidays to ensure said workers will return.

donniemcm Oct 8th 201210:21am

Well in a lot of countries it's the case, you can get your leave when you want (as long as it is approved).
But being able to go wherever and whenever you want is something called Freedom.

Seems you are really ignorant what is going on in China and live in the 80s. Fyi. the workers can leave whenever they want. They do, when they want to switch factories and working places. So, do they actuallyy have their freedom already?

Well I would say this only applies for factory workers.
What I found excessive is that for office workers (maybe not all) the same is applied.

lucifer Oct 8th 20127:08am

Why not just switch to a system like Hong Kong, where workers are given one or two days off for the holiday and are free to use their earned annual leave whenever they want? Or is that too complicated….and yes, I know, HK is supposed to be learning from China not the other way around…..As for the factory workers, well that is a different story, and the paid annual Lunar new year trip home could be continued of the time being until these people are allowed to settle where they work and the Hukou system is revised. However, these workers are not the problem here.